In other news, four rabbinical groups have dropped out of the yearly tradition of commemorating the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with the office of the president because Trump has "given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia."
Meanwhile, a jury in Las Vegas has cleared two Bundy militiamen of all charges stemming from the 2014 standoff with federal agents. Possible charges against two others are still pending. I wish I could say this surprises me, but it doesn't.
Finally, ExxonMobil has lied to the public for decades about global warming according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
As early as 1979, when climate change barely registered as an issue for the public, Exxon was sounding internal alarms.
"The most widely held theory is that... the increase in atmospheric CO2 is due to fossil fuel combustion," an internal memo from that year read.
A peer-reviewed study by Exxon scientists 17 years later concluded that "the body of evidence... now points towards a discernable human influence on global climate."
At the same time, however, the company was spending tens of millions of dollars to place editorials in The New York Times and other influential newspapers that delivered a very different message.
The New York Attorney General's office is investigating ExxonMobil for possibly lying to investors as well as the public.